Knockin' On Heaven's Door
by UOFLfan7
Summary: Broken and battered, Batman is terrorized to the brink of insanity. Batman finds himself fighting for not only his own life, but also his own sanity. Will Batman survive? If so, what will be left of him? Oneshot. Reviews are much appreciated...thanks for reading!


_ Disclaimer: I do not own Batman or any related characters. They are own by DC comics. I also do not own the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", that is owned by Guns N Roses and rightfully so._

_Somewhere in Gotham_

"_Mama take this badge from me,_

_I can't use it anymore,_

_It's getting dark, too dark to see,_

_Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door."_

The song played over the speakers, creating a grim and forbidding atmosphere in the warehouse. A shadow moved in the far corner to the left followed by loud hysterical laughter. A laughter all too familiar. Batman turned to his left quickly as he heard what seemed to be footsteps. Wrong. It was only the _drip, drop_ of a leaky pipe. Batman heard a gunshot and felt a sheering pain in his left knee as the world around him grew dark.

_"Got to remain focus, got to shake off the pain." _Batman thought to himself, struggling to regain consciousness.

"_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door."_

Batman struggled back up to his feet as the darkness continued to collapse in around him. The song grew louder and louder as it went on, more thunderous yet more serene and quiet at the same time. Laughter. More of it coming from all directions. Maddening laughter that caused Batman to began to chuckle to himself quietly. It was contagious, like a disease. Madness spreads like wild fire, all it takes is one little push. The music grew louder and louder as it began to mix and mash together with the maddening laughter. Batman fell back to his knees and threw his hands up to cover his ears. The music, the laughter…all too much.

"_Mama put my guns in the ground,_

_I can't shoot them anymore,_

_That cold black cloud is comin' down,_

_Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door."_

"STOP!" Batman screamed in anguish as his left knee began to burn in pain once again.

Old memories flooded his head, memories of his parents smiling faces…smiling faces that crumpled to dust and grain…smiling faces that melted away in fire and blood as the mystical bullets hit their mark. Memories of Jason Todd's lifeless body, bruised and battered, lying in his arms, cold, lifeless, dead. Memories of Todd's only true moment of happiness, finding his true mother. Memories of the laughter, the tears, and the relief, relief that maybe, just maybe, that Jason could have started a new life with his true mother and ditch the Robin mantle and the danger and pain that comes with it. The danger and pain brought about because of himself. Because of Batman.

"STOP!" Batman screamed in anguish once again, tears flowing out of his eyes as he stared into the darkness in front of him, the darkness that laughed at him and mocked him as the wound in his knee continued to bleed rapidly. As the maddening song continued to play over the speaker. As the sadistic laughter continued to flow from the darkness in front of him.

"_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door,_

_Knock-knock knockin' on heaven's door."_

The memories continued to flow into Batman's head as the dam he had built in his mind bursted open after years of withstanding the torment and suffering. After years of remaining strong in the face of pure evil, and in the face of pure good. Memories of Damien Wayne's small body, crumple up like a helpless baby, as The Heretic ruthlessly murdered him. Years of betraying his destiny, and doing good when he was in actuality brought up to do evil, ruined by none other than himself. Memories of the Joker capturing the Bat Family and slowly trying to turn them on themselves and on him, memories of the fear he had experienced when the Joker reviled what seemed to be their skinned faces when, in fact, it was truly only another lie in an attempt to drive him mad.

The memories of Barbara Gordon's knee getting blown out by the Joker in a sick twist of fate. The memories of the pictures that the Joker had forced Jim Gordon to see of his daughter in an attempt to drive him mad, in an attempt to prove to the world that everybody was capable of going mad, that all it would take was one little push. The memories of the resurrection of Jason Todd as Red Hood, an abomination that nearly tarnished the memory of his former self. All it flooding into Batman's mind, all of the memories flooding in at once, all of them...it was becoming too much to take, too much to handle.

Laughter and song. Laughter and song floated from the darkness, slowly driving him insane.

"_You just better start sniffin' your own,_

_Rank subjugation Jack 'cause it's just you,_

_against your tattered libido, the bank_

_and the mortician, forever man and it wouldn't,_

_be luck if you could get out alive."_

Two dark, human shadows stepped out from the darkness. Human shadows, but the people who owned them were no longer human, they were monsters. They laughed together and pointed at Batman, pointed at the broken man at their feet. Memories still flooding in. Memories of Bane breaking his back, and breaking the bat but not the man. This was different, the bat had been broken before, he could recover from that. The man, Bruce Wayne, is broken now.

Memories. Laughter. Music. Laughter. Music. Madness. Insane. Music. Memories. Death. Laughter. Sadness. Music. Laughter. Insane. Death. Memories. Death. Memories. Laughter. _Drip. Drop. Drop. Drip_. Laughter. _Drip. _Blood. Tears. Broken. Inhuman. Monsters. Laughter.

Batman screamed in more than pain…Batman screamed in something he had barely felt and never showed…Batman screamed in fear. One of the figures put a hand on Batman's mask and pulled it off with ease. The shadow kissed the mask and threw it behind itself, doing a little twirl along with the other shadow.

The removal of the mask, the removal of the dam, the removal of his sanity.

Memories. Laughter. Music. Laughter. Music. Madness. Insane. Music. Memories. Death. Laughter. Sadness. Music. Laughter. Insane. Death. Memories. Death. Memories. Laughter. _Drip. Drop. Drop. Drip._ Laughter. Drip. Blood. Tears. Broken. Inhuman. Monsters. Laughter.

_Bruce_ screamed again, screaming in fear, screaming in anger, screaming in pain, screaming in anguish. The shadows laughed hysterically. One of them kicked him, but he didn't feel it. He was numbed to the simple, physical pain and they knew that. It the mental pain that tortured him, that ate at his soul and mind. The mental pain that broke the man _and_ the bat.

"You don't have to do this…please." Batman, Bruce Wayne, pleaded. Tried to reason.

"Shush little baby…it's gonna be okay. You see, we do have to do this. Of course we do. You brought this on yourself. You are the cause of Gotham's misery and pain…the cause of _OUR_ misery and pain. It was a fun go around Brucy…all these years with you was a real hoot. But there comes a time in life were a terrific twosome like ourselves just wanna settle down." One of the figures explained.

"Quite right pooh." The other one said in agreement. "See bats, I truly have enjoyed our little game...but we have been going at it for YEARS now! It's gotten kinda old really and it truly has lost most of its fire. I know this may seem to be hard to take in Bats, but we both need to go our own ways. Its not you…its me. Wait..NAH ITS JUST YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Laughter. They both laughed hysterically as one of the figures pointed a gun at Bruce's head. Laughter. The shadow squeezed his hand on the trigger as a white flash of light exploded from the gun. No pain…just blinding light and memories.

Memories. Laughter. Music. Laughter. Music. Madness. Insane. Music. Memories. Death. Laughter. Sadness. Music. Laughter. Insane. Death. Memories. Death. Memories. Laughter. _Drip. Drop. Drop. Drip._ Laughter. Drip. Blood. Tears. Broken. Inhuman. Monsters. Laughter. Bane. Jason. Hood. Joker. Barbara. Jim. Broken. Memories. Red. Todd. Death. Lifeless. Body. Rubbage. Weak. Damien. Death. Robin. Wayne. Gordon. Family. Insane. Skinned. Faces. Lies. Insane Memories. Laughter. Music. Madness. Insane. Memories. Laughter. Madness. Laughter. Bane. Wayne. Broken. Gone.

"_Knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door."_

_Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it! Now I'm a little indecisive on rather or not I want to make this into an actual story with chapters and everything, or if I just want to leave it as a one shot so your reviews will be a huge help. For some reason my Harley Quinn origin story got deleted so I decided to write something different, and original, and decided to go with this. All reviews all appreciated, and once again thanks for reading._


End file.
